By mid 1944, the B-17G, 42-31452 ‘Fifty Packing Mama’ was already a seasoned bomber veteran with 71 combat missions.
Some of these had even taken the B-17 as far as the Soviet airbase at Poltava on the Vorskia River in Central Ukraine - during the early stages of the USAAF & Soviet’s ‘Frantic Joe’ bombing ‘shuttle’ campaign.
Shuttle missions were designed to enable USAAF B-17s to take off from bases in Italy, England and the Mediterranean and bomb difficult to reach targets in Eastern Europe.
The B17 did not have enough fuel to attack and return from those distant targets. Instead, they would simply proceeded onto Russian held bases to refuel and rearm. They could then bomb other targets on their return to their original home base.
The US had wanted to bomb the German aircraft factories in Riga and Poland which were within easy range of US bases in England but the Soviets wanted to attack the German refineries and oil fields in Hungry and Romania, which they insisted were within range of US bases in newly surrendered Italy.
Eventually the US relented and the missions gradually switched to the more southern targets including the heavily defended Romanian refineries and oil fields at Ploesti.
The Ploesti industrial complexes were ringed with some of the largest and best-integrated air defence networks in Europe with 24/7 blanket air cover provided by 5 squadrons (Staffeins) of Bf 109 fighters and Bf 110 night fighters as well as an assortment of another 200 Romanian Airforce fighters and interceptors.
In mid 1943, the USAAF had conducted a disasterous low-level bombing raid on the Ploisti sites.
Out of the 178 B-24’s used in the raid, a total of 53 were lost along with over 500 aircrew. It was to become the most costly Allied raid of the war, becoming known as ‘Black Sunday’, resulting in the USAAF switching back to high-altitude bombing by their more heavily protected B17s.
Almost a year later, on the morning of 22nd July 1944, 23 B-17 bombers from the USAAF’s 2nd Bomb Group took off from their 
base at Amendola, Italy for another raid on Ploesti with Fifty Packing Mama part of the first wave.
After their bombing run, a tail gunner aboard another B-17 reported seeing 42-31452 passing directly under him with smoke streaming out of its No. 2 engine. Dropping out of position, it disappeared into a cloud with no chutes visible.
At the debriefing, Fifty Packing Mama was erronously reported to have gone down with no survivors after being hit by flak over the target.
In reality however, the aircraft had experienced engine failure and dropping out of formation, was immediately ambushed by one of Ploesti’s Bf 109 fighter groups.
Recalls Pilot Officer, Norman Austin; ‘I had engine failure short of the target. We dropped out of formation and fighters set the plane on fire. We all bailed out just before the plane exploded.'.
One crew member, T/Sgt. Carl C. Jones, failed to open his chute’. Norman and the remaining survivors of Fifty Packing Mama were quickly captured and spent the remainder of the war in a POW camp.
After the end of hositlities in Europe, the crew of Fifty Packing Mama were repatriated to the US and into the arms of their families and loved ones - many of whom had reconciled themselves that they would never be seen again.
For many other Allied bombers during operations over Europe however, no trace of either crew or aircraft wreckage has ever been recovered - with many simply disintergrating through enemy action or disappearing into the ocean never to be seen again.